LAT in 90 Navel-Gazing Seconds

Tim Rutten is an Angry, Angry Man: We're going long-form today, to print the best part of Tim Rutten's column in its entirety: Over the last five years, this paper's readers have received less and less in the way of news and features provided by fewer and fewer journalists. Tribune has installed one publisher after another who has said that it is impossible for The Times â€” or any other newspaper â€” to cut its way to success. This has become truer, as it has become more apparent that the simultaneous provision of high quality journalism in print and online is the way forward for newspaper journalism. And yet the cuts have continued. When the cuts stop and readers are no longer asked to expect and to accept less from their newspaper they'll know the tide has turned. If and when Zell's purchase of Tribune is consummated it will accomplish one thing for certain: After more than 120 years, the Chandler family will be out of the newspaper business. Good riddance. Southern California and this newspaper's role in its development made the Chandlers rich beyond any normal human being's wildest dreams. All the heavy lifting, of course, was done by their rapacious forbearers and, later, by Otis Chandler, who broke with the rest of his venal clan to make The Times a great newspaper. The current beneficiaries of all that brutal avarice and ingenuity are wealthy through no effort of their own. They're like a bunch of Saudi princelings, whose grandfather's wretched tent just happened to be pitched atop an oil field. Their blood is a kind of genetic lottery ticket. Chandlers Are Saddened, Geffen Is Still Interested: Local react story includes a hint that David Geffen might still make a play for the LAT. Money For Nothing: Sam Zell is contributing pocket change for a company that could earn him (another) fortune.

Fishbowl

LAT in 90 Navel-Gazing Seconds

Greg

About

Subscriptions

Events

Publications

WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

Subscribe today!

Greg